– Nobels fredspris er ikke en «legg-mer-press-på-Israel» pris, skriver MIFFs styreleder Morten Fjell Rasmussen i et brev til president Barack Obama.
MIFFs brev til Nobelpris-vinneren er ikke bare en høflig gratulasjon, men minner presidenten på en tidligere uttalelse som er en fredsnøkkel i Midtøsten.
– Vi husker godt den viktige uttalelsen du gav til israelske reportere under presidentvalgkampen, i et møte 28. januar 2008. Du understreket at Israel må bli bevart i framtiden som en jødisk stat, og at de palestinske flyktningene må få et hjem i en framtidig palestinsk stat – ikke i Israel, skriver Rasmussen (bildet).
MIFFs styreleder understreker at det må finnes en løsning på flyktningeproblemet som ikke er en trussel mot Israels eksistens som en jødisk stat.
– Å akseptere palestinernes krav om å vende tilbake innenfor Israels grenser, vil gjøre landet om til nok en arabisk stat og ødelegge den eneste staten i verden med jødisk flertall, påpeker Rasmussen.
Rasmussen avslutter med å skrive at freden vil komme nærmere om israelerne ser at palestinerne søker en stat for seg selv, ved siden av Israel, og ikke en løsning hvor jødene ender opp med å bli en minoritet i sin egen stat.
- Her følger teksten i brevet som er sendt til president Obama via den amerikanske ambassaden i Oslo. Se også PDF-versjon.
Dear President Obama,
Congratulations on being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and welcome to Norway!
You receive the Nobel Peace Prize for your “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”. We all hope your efforts will succeed and that the prize will give you inspiration and courage to keep up your important work.
On behalf of the 3100 Norwegian members in my organization, I want to point out that the Nobel Peace Prize is not a “Put-More-Pressure-On-Israel” Price. You may receive advice in that direction, but we ask you to reject this notion.
We remember well the important comments you made to Israeli reporters during your Presidential election campaign, in a meeting 28 January 2008. You pointed out that Israel needs to be preserved in the future as a Jewish state and that the Palestinian refugees belong to a future Palestinian state – not in Israel.
We believe this is a key to peace, and needs always to be remembered. There has to be a solution for the Palestinian refugees which is not a threat to Israel’s existence as a Jewish state. The “right of return” of 4-6 million Palestinians into Israel´s pre-1967 armistice lines needs to be rejected.
The Palestinian refugee problem should be solved just like the many other refugee problems created in the 20th century. The refugees need the possibility to establish a normal life in the place where they live. Their children should get citizenship in the countries where they are born, and the refugees should be integrated in their new homeland, as is the normal situation for all other refugees. This is how Israel has received hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees from Arab countries, in fact just as many as the Palestinian refugees.
We regret that the Arab and Palestinian leaders have kept them in refugee camps for more than 60 years, using them as a political tool against Israel. Accepting their demand to return within Israel’s borders, will turn it into yet another Arab state and destroy the only Jewish majority state in the world. This would be a fulfillment of an anti-Semitic dream, and the destruction of the more than 2.000 year old religious and political aspirations of the Jewish people.
We trust that you will avoid this. We strongly believe that peace will come closer if the Israelis understand that the Palestinians are seeking a state on their own, next to Israel, and not a solution where Jews will end up being a minority in their own state.
Yours sincerely,
Morten Fjell Rasmussen
President, With Israel for Peace
miff.no
Bergen, 2 December 2009
